Fiction, Cozy Mystery, Romance

4****

Blurb: When Cambria Clyne—klutzy, twenty-something single mom—takes the job of an apartment manager at an LA complex, she hopes her run of bad luck is finally coming to an end. She’s got a nice home for her daughter, a steady source of income, and the cute maintenance guy is certainly a nice perk! But her luck takes a bad turn again when a dead body turns up, a crime spree takes over the community, and Cambria finds her complex squarely at the center of it all! With her dream job suddenly on the line, Cambria dons her detective hat to get to the truth—after all, she’s watched enough crime shows on TV to know how to catch a perp! Or so she hopes as she wades through a streaker in apartment 40, an ex-con with a shady agenda, an overly frisky retired couple, and the suspiciously sneaky dealings of the dentist in apartment 36. But will Cambria be able to catch a killer… or will she get caught up in his game and lose it all?

THOUGHTS: There were parts of this story where I cringed and others where I laughed out loud. The cringing is because the main character, Cam, is so inept and so out of her depth in what she’s doing. I laughed out loud because Cam is so inept and so out of her depth in what she’s doing.

Cam is a single mother of a 3-year-old girl who is desperately looking for a job and a new apartment. She gets both in the form of property manager for an apartment complex, and then the fun (not) begins. She has no training and the first day on the job, she discovers a dead body in the dumpster. Then a car is stolen from the parking area. Then she sees a naked man swimming in the pool at midnight. And from there, it goes downhill as she tries to figure out who killed the resident in the dumpster, and what other illegal activities are going on in her complex. When she gets arrested for the murder and for dealing drugs, she’s sure she’s going to lose her job. Even though she’s innocent of both charges.

I will definitely be looking for more in this series. Cambria is a hoot – and way too much in love with ice cream! The characters are quirky and fun and the situations almost believable.

Definitely recommended.